Chapter 236: Max’s Challenge
<🎧 Song Recommendation: bloodstream by Alyssa Grace>
...
The plump body. The wide, annoying grin on his face even while every other dancer around him was gasping for air.
There was no way Von could mistake him.
’Max...’
Max was standing in the back row of a thirty-person elite dance crew wearing a tank top and a tiny action camera strapped to his chest.
And he was dancing.
The crew hit a chest pop on the four count, meanwhile Max hit it on the four and a half and then he added a shoulder shimmy that nobody else in the formation was doing.
The crew dropped into a low slide. Max dropped into a low slide, spun an extra half rotation, and pointed both fingers at the empty seats like there were already forty thousand people sitting in them.
The choreographer, a woman with a shaved head was getting upset already.
"Max! We are not doing a solo!"
"It’s flavor, Kiana! It’s flavor!"
"Pfft," Von covered his mouth with his hand, but his laugh escaped anyway.
"Alright, water break!"
The music stopped and all dancers assumed their end formations after Kiana’s command before they all left to take water.
Some of them noticed Von in the distance, and whispers were already building up as they came to terms with just who they were working with.
That was when Max finally turned around and saw who was standing at the soundboard.
"VOOOON!"
Max ran to Von with his hands spread wide, cut halfway there he eventually remembered the last time he did such and Von’s words to him, making him clasp his hands at his back and complete the walk in a dignified posture.
"Mr. Varley," Max greeted with a small, professional nod. "Good morning. The crew is warming up nicely."
Von stared at him for a long second. "Why are you in my dance crew?"
"Correction," Max raised a finger. "Your dance crew implies favoritism. I am in the dance crew. I got in on merit, through a blind audition. Two hundred people showed up in this city, bro!"
"Hmm, aren’t you my social media manager."
"Yes, I’m proud to be your Digital Content Director. But I’m also a featured dancer. I’m following in your footsteps to become multi-talented, sire."
Von turned slowly to David, who had come down the tunnel steps behind him with a clipboard tucked under his arm.
David flipped a page and sighed the sigh of a man who had already lost this argument once today.
"He’s on the sheet," David confirmed. "Kiana ranked him ninth out of the entire audition pool. Emily signed off on it yesterday. Something about the behind-the-scenes footage being, and I’m quoting her, ’the cheapest marketing we will ever get.’"
"Ninth," Max repeated with a grin. "Out of two hundred. Say it back to me."
"I’m not saying it back to you."
"Ninth, Von."
Von rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You were two counts behind the entire crew just now."
"I was ahead of them. They’re behind me. It’s a perspective thing." Max suddenly gasped and grabbed Von’s wrist. "Wait. Wait. You have to come say hi. I’m live right now."
"You’re what?"
"Relax! Emily cleared it herself. Camera’s locked on the warm-up wall, so there’s no stage in frame, nothing spoils."
Max was already dragging him toward the barricade. "Forty-one thousand people, bro. Do not embarrass me."
The phone sat on a small tripod, angled deliberately at a blank black curtain so that not a single piece of the set was visible.
Max dropped into frame, and the chat detonated the second a taller figure sat down beside him.
[YoNoBad1111: WAIT]
[xX_taxesSuck_Xx: NO WAY. NO WAY. IS THAT VON 🤯]
[IkeepSleepingTomorrow: bro really pulled the boss on stream during work hours]
[OnlyMusicFanatic: 41k → 96k in fifteen seconds LMAOO]
"Say hello to the family," Max announced grandly, gesturing at the screen.
"Hey," Von said with a two-finger salute. "Y’all know he’s supposed to be working right now, right?"
[lolPrincessLMAO: HE’S SO CHILL 😭]
[DerekBlogger: Von please tell us ONE thing about the show. one. just one.]
[SOCCERfan007: what’s the opening song 👀👀]
Von read a few of them off the screen and laughed. "Nice try. Nobody’s getting anything. You buy a ticket or you wait."
[justStart: worth a shot]
[HerNextTime: VON ASK HIM WHAT HE SAID EARLIER]
[SleepParalysisAngel: YOOO VON HE SAID HE’S A BETTER DANCER THAN YOU. HE SAID IT TWICE 🧢]
[Vigilantly: he said it like six times actually]
Von slowly lowered the phone and looked over at Max. "Better dancer than me?"
Max grinned before turning to Von.
"Look, bro, I love you," he said while patting Von’s shoulder. "But let’s be honest for one second. Back at the Mansion you got possessed by a dance demon for four minutes on live television, and you’ve been coasting on it ever since. Meanwhile? I’ve been training almost every day, while you were in Hollywood kissing people on camera for money."
Alex, who had wandered out of Studio B with a lyric sheet in his hand, stopped dead at the edge of the floor and quietly sat down on a road case to watch, he heard the last line Max said and even him couldn’t control himself from laughing.
[BigChungus2015: he’s cooked. he’s so cooked.]
[Vigilantly: Hold on for a sec, does that mean the kiss rumors are true?]
[SofieTaylorOfficial: battle battle battle 💃😏]
[WarMachine78: 180k viewers just to watch max get ended. beautiful.]
Von looked at the chat for a moment, then handed the phone back.
"Alright. We’ll settle it."
Max nearly fell off the barricade, he hadn’t expected Von to accept. "ON STREAM?"
"Yeah, on stream," Von confirmed with a smirk. "I mean, freestyle isn’t part of the show, so it doesn’t spoil anything." He stood up and stretched his shoulders.
"But it’s happening later. I’ve got work first."
"Later? Von, they’ll leave—"
"Then keep them." Von was already walking off. "You’re the Digital Content Director."
The chat lost its entire mind.
[lollipopNoSugar: I’M NOT LEAVING THIS STREAM. I HAVE WORK IN THE MORNING AND I’M NOT LEAVING.]
[WarMachine78: 240k]
[Vigilantly: max is about to yap for two hours straight to hold us hostage, i can feel it]